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Haslam says Trump’s attack on fellow GOP governor ‘not helpful’

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, here delivering his State of the State Address Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in Nashville. Haslam has been critical of Donald Trump, most recently criticizing Trump's comments about the New Mexico governor. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)(Photo: Mark Humphrey)

NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam said Wednesday he doesn't believe Donald Trump's harsh criticism last week of New Mexico's governor — Haslam's successor as chairman of the Republican Governors Association — is helpful to the candidate or the party.

At a rally last week in Albuquerque, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee attacked GOP Gov. Susana Martinez in a speech, saying she 'isn't doing the job,' blaming her for the city's unemployment rate and apparently erroneously asserting that she was allowing Syrian refugees to settle in New Mexico.

Martinez, the highest elected Hispanic woman in the country, has criticized Trump's campaign rhetoric over the last several months, had endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio before his withdrawal from the presidential race, has not endorsed Trump and did not attend the rally.

Although fellow Republican governors rushed to her defense, Trump's top campaign aide, Corey Lewandowski, repeated his boss's criticisms of Martinez in an exchange on Fox News Sunday.

'The governor is not doing the job,' he said. 'We stand by our statement.'

Asked about the Trump attack on Martinez on Wednesday, Haslam said: 'At the end of the day, I don't think that's helpful. I think you have a lot of Republican governors who would like to see the next president be Republican and we want to help.

'But we also think, from a state perspective there's a lot of things we'd like to share with the candidate from our party about what's important in terms of state and federal relationships. So we hope to have productive conversations.'

Haslam said last week that he and a small group of fellow GOP governors have been trying to set up a meeting with Trump to discuss state-federal issues but setting a meeting date has been difficult due to the number of governors and Trump's campaign schedule.

He said he hopes it will be before the July 18-21 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

'We're working on it. Between the campaign schedule for the candidate and four or five governors, it's a little hard to juggle but hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks,' Haslam said.

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